Thursday, February 23, 2006

Waambulance! (or, Paybacks are Hell)

It's not xenophobia, it's not anti-Arab, it's not anti-UAE, it's not national security, it's not globalization.

Here's the issue: Karl Rove, the GOP, decided, in the aftermath of 911, to wage war by narrative. Us strong, them weak. Us resolute, them vacillating. Us Churchill, them Chamberlain. Facts are to be selectively promoted or ignored dependent on how they advance the storyline: John Kerry's self-inflicted wounds? Does not matter whether they happened or not, the rumor was true in that it advanced the narrative of John Kerry that the GOP wanted advanced.

Fine. We understand the terms of engagement. Now, given ample ammunition, in the war of narratives, to advance our storyline - that we've been falsely accused of treason, weakness, anti-American sentiment, of supporting the terrorists; that Bush is a moron, a craven crony, a hopelessly incompetent and morally dishonest leader - we advance our storyline. Maybe the deal with the UAE company doesn't compromise national security, maybe it doesn't reward companies and individuals who might proudly claim, behind closed doors at private parties, to be Bush Partners, maybe there's a perfectly valid reason why the Bush Administration did not follow standard procedures of consultation with Congress, maybe if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a bicycle, but none of that matters in a war of narratives.

As the old saying goes, you fight the war you got. Post-911, a conscious decision was made by the GOP to slur anyone who did not goosestep to war with the President as a cowardly weakling at best and a traitorous anti-American at worse, and they never let a contradictory fact once impede that narrative. Now that the same weaponry is turned against them, listen to them whine, like little rich kids denied access to their trust funds, like bullies hit on the nose, like fat kings with gout.